HHH Race boss: Steps in place for casualties

Injured people and debris lie on the sidewalk near the Boston Marathon finish line following an explosion in Boston, Monday, April 15, 2013. (AP Photo/MetroWest Daily News, Ken McGagh) MANDATORY CREDIT

With the Monday bombings at the Boston Marathon dominating the media, officials with significant roles in this area's largest open-air event said Tuesday they are prepared should something similar happen here.

Roby Christie, chairman of Hotter'N Hell Hundred, said preparation for some sort of attack has been part of planning discussions since 9/11. He said organizers have worked with emergency and law enforcement agencies to have a response plan in place.

"We will go back to our old playbook and take a look at what we need to look at to make sure that our start and finish line and other locations are reviewed and assessed before and during the event to make sure nothinghappens," he said.

Christie said that after 9/11, he went through specific training as postmaster in Wichita Falls, where he and others learned how to secure the federal building downtown and areas around the building. Although securing a building and securing an area are two different goals, he said he is confident of the strategies in place.

The single-day event draws thousands of people to Wichita Falls, including about 14,000 riders, a multitude of onlookers, and vendors. Christie said reviewing all plans is a yearlong endeavor to make sure proper plans are in place for any situation.

Part of that includes medical personnel and staffing throughout the race to take care of any emergency that might come up, he said.

"Hotter'N Hell lives and breathes on volunteers and clearly does with medical volunteers," Christie said. About 1,000 people staff the main medical tent at the finish line and 18 rest stops along the route. "We think medically we're pretty well-staffed."

Should something such as the Boston bombings occur, other areas obviously will be affected, including United Regional Health Care System. Jacky Betts, director of trauma and hospital preparedness, said Tuesday the emergency room, under normal conditions, has 48 beds available, but more could be brought in for mass casualties.

Betts said a regional council of 15 area hospitals, both North Texas State Hospital campuses and HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital are part of a network of facilities that work together to manage a significant number of patients whether they're from a natural disaster or an attack.

He said the memorandum of understanding among the organizations allows United Regional to maximize its trauma capabilities while still getting people the medical treatment they need.

"If an event happened like that, we'd start moving the less severely injured patients out to those facilities to try to keep the resources of United Regional. We don't want them to be overrun. We don't want to exhaust all those resources," he said. "We would move those patients to those other facilities that we have memorandums of understanding with to try to keep United Regional functioning so we can care for the more severely injured patients."

Betts said a critical piece of information passed along to medical professionals for any situation is to make sure they are taken care of first. If they become part of the dead or injured, they aren't able to care for others, which is their primary responsibility.

"People tend to forget that you have to make sure that you protect yourself first," he said, adding that first-responders' actions of moving toward the blasts in Boston was contradictory to training. "If you take out the first-responders — the fire, the EMS — it does no one any good. You've lost valuable resources and assets to your community."

Fernando Tezaguic, the hospital's safety officer, said two training drills are conducted annually, one of which addresses the topic of "surge capacity," or simply a flood of patients to the hospital following an event. He said the hospital also has a plan in place to make sure staffing levels are appropriate for an extended amount of time.

"We start making those decisions on the front end so we have the staff available to take on not only people that are coming in for the event, but whenever those events happen, you still have the regular (cases)," he said. "Heart attacks don't take a holiday because you have an event going on. We can still take care of the normal community needs as well as the event that's going on."

Lee Bourgoin, the Wichita County Emergency Management Operations coordinator, said the county's 22-chapter emergency operations plan provides procedures for big and small incidents, including an event such as what happened in Boston.

He said those attending a big event or even going to familiar places should be aware of their surroundings and watch for things that seem out of place. If something does happen, he said, the best thing for people to do is stay away from the area.

"Stay clear of the area and let the professionals trained to deal with the situation take care of it," he said.

Christie said he doesn't expect the Boston bombings to have an effect on attendance at this year's race.